WSP01441

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 12/1/1971
• Author: Missouri Basin Inter
• Title: Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study-Volume VII-Plan of Development and Management-Appendix
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

With the close of the frontier, many of the social and
economic characteristics found within the basin today
were in evidence. The humid eastern edge had become
an extension of the Corn Belt and the plains were
producing their basic products; livestock and small
grains. In the mountains, the gold booms were over and
agriculture had become firmly established. Irrigation had
been introduced in the mountain valleys and along the
mountain fronts with a water law based upon the
doctrine of prior appropriation.
Many of the attitudes and beliefs that are much in
evidence today, particularly in the rural areas and in the
small towns, achieved their greatest growth during the
settlement period. The ideas of individualism, the role of
government in internal development projects, the basic
distrust and agitation against the political and economic
control of the East, the moral values concerning social
order and goals, were all tied to the events and
conditions of settlement within the basin.
Not all the mosaic of social and economic traits to be
found within the basin were established during the
settlement era for much of the character of the basin is
uniquely the result of what followed. However, many of
its basic characteristics have their roots in the manner by
which the frontier was settled and are not recent events.
Consequently, these traits probably will continue to be a
part of the basin's character for some time to come and,
therefore, will have a bearing upon many of the future
actions of its people.

BOOM AND BUST

As the great influx of settlers into the basin pro-
gressed, the physical nnd eCOnOnl!C problen1s they were
to face became evident. Some of the physical hazards
were apparent from the beginning, but when drought or
grasshoppers drove a few of the settlers out of the basin,
most stayed, and more came. The winter of 1885-86
resulted in a considerable exodus of settlers. So did the
drought years of 1890-91, the grasshopper year of 1892,
the panic year of 1893, and the drought period of
1894-96. With the rains of 1896 came a new wave of
settlers into the basin. By 1899, the immigration boom
was going strong and it reached its peak shortly after the
turn of the century.
A number of innovations were developed during this
time which helped the settlers cope with the climate and
other natural hazards of the basin. From these innova-
tions came the "dry farming" methods, new crop
varieties, and new machinery which was better adapted
to the basin's agriculture. However, such innovations had
only a peripheral effect. By and large, the farmer came
to accept the natural hazards as necessary evils or he
acquired a sort of mystical hope that they would
diminish as he settled the land.

28

The exploitive power of the railroads, the meat
packers, the flour mills, and the credit institutions
outside of the region were soon plainly evident to the
settlers. The economic abuses by these interests soon
became common practice in their dealings with the
settler. The agriculturalist faced a situation that persists
to the present. The costs of the goods and services
needed for production and the prices received for the
products of the land were set. by forces outside of the
basin and largely outside of the settlers' control.
In trying to cope with economic abuses, the settler of
the basin early resorted to political action. From the end
of the Civil War until well into the 20th century, parts of
the basin were in an almost continuous condition of
revolt. This revolt was waged primarily with political
pressure through farmers' organizations and political
parties as well as through various cooperative efforts in
the field of business. The political activity was mainly
directed at monetary deflation, railroad abuses, and
monopoly practices.
While the prices of farm commodities declined in the
late decades of the 19th century, those of manufactured
products remained high or did not decline proportion-
ately. Monopolies in meat packing and other processing
industries were often able to hold the prices of farm
commodities artificailly low while they profited by the
high prices charged to consumers. The holders of patent
monopolies on inventions such as barbed wire or well
machinery were able to overcharge for their products. At
the same time, the farmer felt that an undue share of the
profits from his products were taken by the middleman
and by the speculators on the grain exchanges. While the
farmer did most of the heavy manual work, the eastern
capitalists obtained most of the profits of his produce.
"There are three great crops raised in Nebraska," said
one of the farmers' papers in 1890. "One is a crop of
corn, one a crop of freight rates, and one a crop of
interest. One is produced by the farmers who by sweat
and toil farm the land. The other two are produced by
men who sit in their offices and behind their bank
counters and farm the farmers." 1
The 1930's represented the culmination of the boom
and bust period. The depression in farm prices and
recurring drought during the twenties had drained much
of the economic strength of the basin. The results were
high rates of borrowing and taxes with low income and
reserves. Much of the basin's fu ture income had been
mortgaged. Then came the nationwide industrial and
business depression which began in 1929. Next came the
drought years of 1934, 1935, and 1937. With the
drought was a further business recession in 1937.
Cumula tively, these conditions all but bankrupted the
basin's agriculture and brought about far reaching
changes in its social and economic character.

I Farmers' Alliance, August 23, 1890. Quoted by Harold
Faulkner, American Econimic History, P. 367.